BRUSSELS, Belgium, Oct. 18, 2026 - The European Commission has proposed reserving the 2 GHz satellite band for European use,^[1] and US Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder^[2] has warned that the EU will face US retaliation over the plan,^[3] in an interview published on 18 October.^[4] SpaceX has warned that reserving critical spectrum for European operators could cause interference, including for emergency use in Ukraine.^[5] US officials say the plan undermines technological competition,^[6] and four European telecom firms have signed a joint letter of intent for a spectrum bid.^[7] According to Politico, the EU is working on five separate fronts to counter Starlink's dominance.^[8] Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has backed a proposed joint aerospace venture between Airbus, Leonardo and Thales,^[9] while the EU's own IRIS² network has slipped, with its first launch now set for 2029.^[10] Impact Insight. Radio spectrum is a finite resource: satellites and ground stations must share a limited set of frequencies without interfering, and regulators decide who gets which band. The link to planetary defense is indirect: the contest over who runs Europe's satellite networks shapes how crowded low Earth orbit becomes, and keeping near-Earth space safe depends on tracking and coordinating all of it.